Approaches for reduction of the temperature bias on radon detectors packed in anti-thoron polymer membranes

Abstract

Passive and active detectors used for radon (²²²Rn) measurements can be influenced by thoron (²²⁰Rn). Polyethylene membranes are very appropriate diffusion barriers for anti-thoron protection of such detectors. However, if not properly chosen, these membranes may not reduce efficiently the thoron influence or could introduce temperature bias in the radon sensitivity of the detectors. In this work three approaches are proposed dealing with the thoron influence and the temperature bias introduced by packing in polymer membranes. The approaches exploit a model of the radon and thoron diffusion transport through the membranes and the already known diffusion properties of the membranes to estimate the thoron influence and the temperature bias and to take them into account. The approaches are experimentally verified. It is shown that, in some cases, with the proper choice of membrane the thoron influence could be reduced down to few percents introducing only a few percents temperature bias. Additionally, in the cases when temperature bias is significant and cannot be avoided (the thoron bias in that cases is shown to be below 1%), the proposed approaches allow to estimate and to correct that bias.

Keywords: Polymer membranes; Radon; Radon detectors; Temperature bias; Thoron; Thoron influence.